Averatu
My take on our little fishbowl industry is this. The record companies found it much less costly to just market all the stuff from their parent companies in the states, rather than making an effort to develop local artists. The resulting void was filled by an informal system, club and bar owners who only care about people buying booze putting a few bands on stage, because those rockers can piss it up. And the vast majority of rock bands that have been signed locally have been sounds like bands, completely shunning innovation(I can think of a hundred bands who deserved a chance). The majors have exclusivity deals with radio/television, the biggest opinion former till the internet. But still locally people treat music thats not featured in the major media as inferior.
